Baghdad Bobs of Obamacare

The technical issues that have bedeviled the rollout of Obamacare don’t go to the root of the law’s evil. Nonetheless, the dishonesty with which the administration has publicly addressed them is endemic and representative of the foundational lies of Obamacare.

In the rollout we see that Kathleen Sebelius is the Bagdhad Bob of Obamacare. Appearing in Pittsburgh with Steelers’ owner Dan Rooney to promote the wonders of Obamacare — the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette previewed the event here — Sebelius “had a front-row view of the problems plaguing the website that the government established to allow people to shop for health insurance under Obamacare. Sebelius and Steelers Chairman Dan Rooney were at an enrollment and education event on Thursday at Heinz Field to promote Healthcare.gov, but people who showed up encountered problems in signing up for coverage on the website.” So reported Alex Nixon of the Pittsburgh Tribune.

Sebelius told the assembled faithful that the federal Obamcare portal Healthcare.gov was “open for business.” She acknowledged the widely reported “early glitches” but assured the faithful that “it’s getting better every day.” Even the New York Times provides evidence to the contrary. Who ya gonna believe, her or your lyin’ eyes?

Characterizing Sebelius as the Baghdad Bob of Obamacare is unfair. She is only one among many, including President Obama and Obama flack Jay Carney. They repeatedly assure us, for example, that Obamacare is doing no damage to employment, though the evidence to the contrary is deep and persistent. It’s another “who ya gonna believe” situation.

Andrew Pudzer is the chief executive officer of CKE Restaurants, the company that owns Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s restaurants. This past July we noted his account of the company’s experience offering affordable health insurance plans to its 21,000 employees. This week Pudzer returned to discuss the impact of Obamacare on employment. Here is the opening of his Wall Street Journal column that is out from behind the Journal’s jealously guarded subscription paywall:

There are times when the Obama administration makes statements so disconnected from economic reality that you wonder if any White House official has talked with anyone in business. A case in point: the administration’s mantra that ObamaCare’s definition of full-time employment as 30 or more hours per week had no effect on employers’ hiring practices.

We heard it Monday night on “The Daily Show” when Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius told Jon Stewart: “At least the economists, not anecdotal folks, but economists, say there is absolutely no evidence that part-time work is going up. In fact, it’s going down.” We’ve been hearing that sort of thing for months—in July, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters that data failed to support “the proposition that businesses are not hiring full-time employees because of the Affordable Care Act.” The president himself added to the wonder on Sept. 26, stating that “there’s no widespread evidence” that ObamaCare is hurting jobs.

As the CEO of a company that has been dealing with ObamaCare for over three years, I’d like to set the record straight: The evidence that ObamaCare is having a negative impact on hiring is unequivocal, abundant and consistent with common sense.

Pudzer knows what he is talking about and is a credible witness to one aspect of the destruction wrought by Obamacare. The whole thing is here and the whole thing is worth reading.